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Born 1976 in New Delhi, Randhir Singh received his Bachelor of Architecture and Bachelor of Science degrees from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York in 1999. He spent fifteen years working as an architect in New York while studying photography at the International Center of Photography. In 2013, he moved to New Delhi to develop his photographic practice focussing on architecture and urbanism. He is currently based in Barcelona.
Singh is currently working on a series of photography based books exploring modern architecture. Titled Modern South Asia, this series features in depth visual essays on buildings of historic importance along with newly commissioned writing and drawings. The first book in the Modern South Asia series is an exploration of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore by the Pritzker Prize winning architect, Balkrishna V. Doshi. This was followed by titles exploring buildings by Charles Correa, Kuldip Singh, Mahendra Raj, Achyut Kanvinde and Joseph Stein to name a few.
His work was exhibited in 2022 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as a part of The Project of Independence: Architectures of Decolonization in South Asia, 1947-1985. Singh was commissioned to produce a substantial portfolio of photographs on modern architecture in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka providing a contemporary perspective on a “culture of modern architecture” at a time of “significant progressive societal transformation”. The full portfolio of photographs are also included in the scholarly catalogue accompanying the exhibition. A selection of those photographs were acquired by MoMA for their permanent collection and have been included in exhibitions at the V&A South Kensington and V&A Dundee.
Exhibited at Photoink in 2020 and at Arthshila Ahmedabad in 2022, IIT Delhi: A Modernist Case Study was a two person show, and subsequent publication, with the late Madan Mahatta exploring the role of the photographer in relationship to architecture, history and time. The modernist site of the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi was viewed through two vantage points six decades apart drawing in issues of inhabitation and architectural materiality.
Singh has collaborated with the artist, Seher Shah on numerous projects combining photography, architecture and drawing. Their recent project, Studies in Form, is a series of cyanotype prints that builds on these overlaps to further an ongoing interest into concepts of architectural scale and sculptural intent. This project was included in the exhibition, Bearing Points at the Dhaka Art Summit (2018), the Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai (2019) and the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah (2022).
For close to a decade, Singh has been photographing government housing colonies in Delhi. This on-going project, CPWD explores socialist housing, typologies, modernism and national identity. Photographs from CPWD were included in the exhibition, When is Space? at Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur (2018).
In 2016, Singh’s series exploring industrial architecture and the urban landscape, Water Towers, was shown at the Pondy Photo Festival. Photographed in portrait format, his project sought to connect the monumental, and often decorative, water towers to the prosaic housing colonies and parks around them. This project was included in the exhibition, Body Building at the Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai (2019). Continuing his interest in the urban landscape, his photographs examining waterways and hydraulic architecture were included in the publication and exhibition, Yamuna River Project (2017). The Yamuna River Project book was awarded the Deutsches Architekturmuseum Architecture Book award for 2018.
Exhibitions
2024 "Tropical Modernism", V&A South Kensington, London
2024 "Photo City", V&A Dundee, Scotland
2022 "Studies in Form" with Seher Shah, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia
2022 "IIT Delhi: A Modernist Case Study" with Madan Mahatta, Arthshila, Ahmedabad
2022 "The Project of Independence: Architectures of Decolonization in South Asia, 1947-1985", The Museum of Modern Art, New York
2020 "IIT Delhi: A Modernist Case Study" with Madan Mahatta, PHOTOINK, New Delhi
2020 "On Muzharul Islam: Surfacing Intention" with Seher Shah, Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka
2019 "Body Building", Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai
2019 "Studies in Form" with Seher Shah, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai
2018 "When is Space?", Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur
2018 "Studies in Form" with Seher Shah, Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka
2018 "India Arch Dialogue", Gallery 1AQ, New Delhi
2016 "Exhibitions at Maison Colombani", PondyPhoto, Pondicherry
Awards
2019 Interior Photography Award, Trends Excellence Award for Architecture and Design
2018 Deutsches Architekturmuseum Architecture Book award for Yamuna River Project. New Delhi Urban Ecology by Inaki Alday and Pankaj Vir Gupta. Published by Actar, Barcelona & University of Virginia
2018 Certificate of Achievement, 12th Annual Black & White Spider Award
2017 Certificate of Achievement, 11th Annual Black & White Spider Awards
2016 Honourable Mention, International Photography Awards, Architecture: Buildings
2015 Honourable Mention, International Photography Awards, Architecture - Buildings
2015 Honourable Mention, International Photography Awards, Editorial - Environmental
2015 Interior Photography Award, Trends Excellence Award for Architecture and Design